WhatsApp to remain free in developing countries like India

WhatsApp will continue to offer its service for free to users in developing countries like India. Vice-president for business development Neeraj Arora stated that low debit and credit card penetration was the main reason for not collecting the $1 annual fee the service charges users in North America and Europe.

Speaking at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad on Tuesday, Arora reiterated that monetization for the service would come from user subscriptions, and not advertisements.

"Monetization is on the cards. It will happen over the next few years. We believe in the subscription model and not in advertising as people do not like to have ads as they converse."

One way WhatsApp could charge users in the subcontinent is by tying up with carriers and collecting subscription charges from offline channels. WhatsApp already works with carriers in bundling data plans that do not charge users for the service, which has a user base of 70 million in the country.

The executive, who was pivotal in the $19 billion acquisition by Facebook earlier this year, also stated that there is potential in India to "build the next WhatsApp for the world."

Are you guys excited that WhatsApp will remain free for the time being?

Come'on.. I m not excited. By saying "Free in developing countries", you are sending a message that burden is reduced on Indian users, who cant pay one dollar a year but can purchase lavish iPhones n Lumia mobiles. Blame the payment issues.

To what's app forgot something. Other countries don't have access to credit cards with credit in dollars or euros (typical of American companies ) too centered in the united states but when is time to turn of get international is there the problem because don't thought in that in Chile no idea how is the thing just the past year got automatically renewed the what app and if, were for, pay I would move to bbm or line

Good, coz there were rumours flying around that from this year onwards WhatsApp would be charging around 1 dollar per year ( which is not much, but I haven't put my card details in my phone so it was a bit difficult to pay for it).....

Why would they charge for this on Windows Phone when the app for our platform is so shaky? Doesn't seem fair. Make it as stable and give it the same feature parity as it is for other mobile platforms and then think about monetizing. Don't charge people for a piece of junk.

Cant help in this case specifically when you have an idiot neighbour like Pakistan. You have to keep your weapons ready. By the way developed nations got nuclear arsenal. Developing nations get nuclear stuffs from them.

There is lot of difference between aiming weapons & nuclear arsenal/programme. As Pakistan is not trustworthy (whole world knows this fact) India has to keep weapons ready. Hope you have heard what pentagon told about Pak. Even the UN rejected to help. Not to mention, Pak has nuclear arsenal. How can someone trust them? After few days if their pet dogs (Al Queda/Taliban) takes the control of nuclear arsenal which is possible in near future, will bring doomsday for other countries.

The way you describe, is about the current situation. When India started it's programme, Pakistan had NOTHING. There was NOTHING called the Taliban. So how is it justified in the first place? Pakistan justifies it, saying India had its bombs in place first and Pakistan uses theirs as a deterrent. There is no way anyone can justify India's programme in the first place. India had NO need to build bombs (since Pakistan didn't have them then and there was no al-Qaeda) and bring misery to Indians.

You cant say its shoddy. With limited amount of cash Indian scientists are doing great. Previous govt was busy to keep money for their own needs. This govt is somewhat better & thinks about country & its people. If you keep less money for R&D sector, how to expect a good outcome?? Now if you are an American, you wont understand because you got everything unlimited. Your govt is putting all effort in R&D sector. And with all such problem if you have a neighbour like Pakistan, its a pain in your ass. After 68years of independence India has reached to Mars with your so called 'shoddy craftsmanship' & Pakistan is still fighting for Kashmir, or Jihad or whatever the f*ck. Its a WP page. I don't wanna explain everything here. You will understand if you come to India once. #StormTrooper

Plus 1
And don't forget china and'64
Btw they aren't shoddy. Look at agni v for an example. Don't bother comparing India with pak. Pak should go and compare themselves with some terrorist state. Even the pentagon released a report declaring the use of terrorists by pak against India.

How funny that they are comparing Pak with India. Hope they don't know that even US officials visit India along with their families but they go to Pak alone with securities. We don't need to prove anything anymore. Indian Army is one of the strongest Army in this world. If India wanted, they would have crushed Pak long back. We believe in peace. This is the reason that Pak still exists in this world. If we had temperament like US or China, story would have been something else. People of other countries will never understand untill and unless they face it. Its always easy to comment.

I'm very curious what would happen if Whatapp started collecting money, since there are so many good and free alternatives. One of which is run by the same company. This must have played an important role in this decision, if not the most important one.

Im from the uk, Ive had the same number for 3 years now and not once have I been asked to pay for it, about 2 months b4 I'm ment to renew it, it does it self for another year. I would be happy to pay for it as I would be lost with out it as i use it yo send pics

So does the WP and iOS version.. It's Server side, so it would be for all WhatsApp users, even if you don't update the app. But frankly. I'm seeing blue ticks only on my brother's chat. Others are replying but no blue ticks.. He's having the same problem, and he's on iOS 8... I guess WhatsApp's still working on it..

Idk but I received a message from some weird number last week. I replied to it and what I got back as a reply was something like: " this was an advertisement and you won't get any reply from the sender"

well, for me it's not much money, but the problem is creditcard, the last time i checked i could only pay with a creditcard, which may have changed already. i was lucky enough for registering before the annual subscription fee and don't have to pay at all, my subscription always gets renewed automatically.

NIce now you can use a service for free that exists in different forms for more than 10 years which were actually ... free already.. Wonder how long it takes for skype to match with mobile phone numbers.. guess skype qik was the beta for this process

I knew facebook would try to make a payment subscription. When they do that, the entire world will migrate to another messenger app that is free. Unless whatsapp offers something great that others don't have. Which hasn't happened yet.